Gameday Blog: Bruins vs. Sabres

Despite putting on one of their best second-period performances
in recent memory, the Bruins are headed to the third down 1-0 in
Buffalo.

Andrej Sekera has scored the lone goal of the contest thus far
with his third strike of the season. The defenseman wristed a feed
from Tyler Ennis in the slot past Rask.

Boston consistently tested Ryan Miller the whole period, but the
Sabres netminder was in a zone, making it look easy as he often did
before slumping this season. Miller stopped all 11 shots he faced
in the middle frame.

The Bruins had two opportunities on the power play, one before
Sekera's tally and one after, with Corey Tropp in the box for
tripping on both occasions. Neither attempt generated many
high-quality opportunities.

Chris Kelly has a game-high four shots, but the center has won
just 1-of-5 faceoffs. David Krejci, a "winger" again in tonight's
tilt, has won 7-of-8 at the dot.

FIRST INTERMISSION

SCORE
BOS - 0
BUF - 0

SHOTS
BOS - 7
BUF - 8

Twenty minutes are in the books in Buffalo where the Sabres and
Bruins are scoreless.

The Sabres threatened early, as Tuukka Rask and the B's caught a
break when a shot hit the post and hovered in the crease before
being cleared out.

Boston caught iron themselves later when Zdeno Chara stepped
into a shot and ripped it past Ryan Miller, only for it to clang
off the crossbar.

Play seemed to breeze on by and had a very tame feel to it, as
these two clubs weren't overwhelmingly physical after building up a
heap of animosity in their recent matchups.

The B's need to minimize the odd-man rushes going forward. A few
d-men got burned, including Adam McQuaid when he failed to keep a
puck in at the blueline. Luckily Thomas Vanek's attempt nearly
missed beating Rask over his left shoulder.

The Bruins held an 8-4 edge in hits in the opening frame and won
8-of-14 (57%) faceoffs.